Stardew Valley Mods: Adding more fun to the game

Hello there, are you a fan of the stardew valley which is also known as role playing games for pc? Would you like to play using some mods? If yes, then you are just in the right place. As you will see, mods are just some files which enable you as the player to do a lot of things in the game. You can change the way things appear among other things. Now let us start with knowing what Stardew Valley Mods really are.

What are Stardew Valley Mods?

As we have said earlier, Stardew Valley Mods are some collections of files that enable gamers to change the appearance of the game in a way that they prefer. When using Stardew Valley Mods, you will be able to make some changes including the game mechanics, for instance, making the fences to decay at a slower rate, you can also make some cosmetic changes like changing the appearance of your house among other things. Using the mods can also allow you to add more features in the game like showing the NPCs on the map and much more. You can always find the mods on stardew valley nexus mods page.

Benefits of using the Stardew Valley Mods

Well, you might need a SMAPI tool for you to use most of the mods but don’t worry, we’ll look into it later in this article. Many first-time stardew valley gamers will always start playing without any of these mods but who knows; maybe that’s how they like it. When you first get a taste of playing this game with mods, someone taking your PC away from you will just feel like taking a candy away from a baby.

With these Mods, you can be able to do a lot of things one of them being character replacements. This is really an amazing feature. For instance, you can change all your characters to be black or whichever way you like them. Mods also allow you to change your animal appearance and do house replacements.

Like we said before, you can use Stardew Valley Mods to introduce some more features in your game to make it more interesting and enjoyable while playing. Stardew valley has mods that can allow you to introduce things like cooking skills, cheats menu, taxes. When you install some cool Stardew Mods, you will have the power to change even the music and the gameplay as you like. The game visuals and the aesthetics can also be changed. You can enjoy all these benefits while playing the game just by finding and installing the best Stardew Valley Mods available.

Now that you know what mods are and some of these advantages, let us look at the types of mods.

Types of Stardew Valley Mods

Generally, if you like using these mods, you might have realized that there are only two types of mods. These are:

SMAPI mods

This is usually a modding API that you will be required to use for you to be able to run a code within the game. These mods are very much loved by the gamers since they are powerful and much more convenient. You only need to install the SMAPI once and then install as many mods as you want by just dropping them into a folder. When you want to uninstall the mods, it is pretty simple as you will only need to delete the folder. Also, keep in mind that you can use as many SMAPI mods as you can since they rarely conflict with each other. Ideally, in this game, you can only use the SMAPI mods even though they are not able to do some few things yet.

This is the other mod though it is a bit technical. This is what you need when you want to replace the game’s data files. The files usually have a “.xnb” extension hence the name XNB mods. These mods might be a little bit difficult to manage since the player will be required to always keep track of the files they overwrote and also keep the backups. One important thing to notice about this mod is that two mods that change the same files cannot be used. The XNB mods are mostly used when you want to change images in the game. This as it might sound, is not such an easy task compared to using the SMAPI mods.

It is advisable that for the beginners, you should try and avoid using the XNB mods. This is because something might easily go wrong and when it does, it will be another difficult job to try and fix it. However, both the XNB and the SMAPI mods can always be used together without any problems experienced.

What are stardew modding API and stardew valley mod manager?

Well, we have just talked about the stardew valley modes, their advantages, and the types. Stardew modding APIs are simply the tools you will need to install on your PC in order for your mods to work. One of the modding APIs used in stardew valley is the SMAPI. This is very much popular as it is the most used by the players. The SMAPI API only makes it easier for you to do the modding after you’ve already installed it.

Stardew valley mod manager (SDVMM)

This is something that helps you with the installation and removal of mods in the game. Just like the name suggests, it helps you manage the mods. For those players that are having problems with the installation of these mods, you can try the SDVMM. It is a simple community developed application that installs the SMAPI. Through the SDVMM, you can always keep your SMAPI updated to the latest version available and the overall maintenance. This is often seen by many gamers as a great utility to use. It is also very important to note that the SDVMM is still being developed thus it still undergoes a lot of updates. This means that it only supports some basic features like installing, deactivating and removing the mods.

With that being said, some players often would like to maintain these mods on their own. If you fall in this category, there are a few things that you might want to put in consideration. The first thing you need to do is to find out which mods you would like to use. This is important because different mods might need different versions of the SMAPI for them to work properly. It is also important that you read the description for you to know the mod requirements. Reading the description will enable you to know everything you need for your mod to work without any problems.

After the download is complete, extract the .zip file somewhere on your PC. Make sure you don’t extract the file in your game folder.

Proceed by double-clicking the install.exe file then follow the instructions that will appear on your screen.

If you are using steam, you can proceed to the next stage if not; you will just need to run StardewModdingAPI.exe in your game folder to start playing with mods.

You can also use Stardew Valley Mods with the help of steam client and still enjoy all the mods benefits. You will only need to go through a few more steps.

Configuring steam

Open the game folder and copy the full address by pressing CTRL+C.

Go back to the steam client then right-click on stardew valley and choose properties.

Click General > Set Launch Options.

You will see a textbox. While in the textbox, do the following.

Type a single quote (“).

Then paste the address you copied in step I followed by this command

\StardewModdingAPI.exe” %command%

Click ok to save the changes, and that’s it.

With this already configured, you can now just launch your game with it for you to run SMAPI. Note that, you can also do a manual installation, but you will have first to read the installer’s readme for you to understand what you need to do.

Updating SMAPI

You will just need to install the new version and the installer will clean up the old versions automatically. Also, note that you don’t have to configure steam again when updating.

Uninstalling SMAPI

Run install.exe then choose to uninstall.

Blank the steam launch options. This is done if you had changed them.

Simple as this, you will now be ready to go with SMAPI on windows.

Installing on Mac

Install mono.

Look for the latest version of SMAPI and download it.

Extract the.zip file somewhere in your PC just not in your game folder.

Run mono install.exe:

Open the terminal app

While in there, type mono then leaves a space.

Drag and drop the install.exe file onto the terminal window for you to paste the file path.

Hit enter on your keyboard and that’s it. You can now launch the game and play with mods.

You can also read the instructions in the installer’s readme to help you install it manually

Updating SMAPI

Just like in windows, install the new version and the previous versions will automatically be cleaned by the installer.

Uninstalling SMAPI

Just run mono install.exe and choose to uninstall.

Installing on Linux

On Linux, the process is almost the same as when installing on Mac. See the steps below.

First, install Mono.

Find and download the latest version of SMAPI.

Extract the .zip file in another location different from your game folder.

Open a terminal in the folder you extracted.

Run mono install.exe the installer will automatically detect your game and add SMAPI for you. You can now go ahead and launch your game to play with mods.

Updating and Uninstalling on Linux is just the same as on Mac. Just do the same processes when you when updating and also when you want to get rid of it. Basically, that’s how to mod in stardew valley.

Best Stardew Valley Mods of The Best Multiplayer RPG Games

As we have seen, playing stardew valley with mods is usually interesting and fun, let’s see some of the best mods you can use.

Visual and aesthetic mods

When it comes to visual and aesthetic mods, you might want to check out the following as they are among the best Stardew Valley Mods.

Anime portraits mod

This is an adorable mod based on anime portraits. It will enable you to change the portraits of some characters in the game such as Alex, Abigail among others.

This mod helps you change the appearance of three stardew valley pets, the dog, cat, and horse. The mod aims at adding some new breeds of these animals into the game. This mod currently has calico and Siamese skins that you can use for the cat, painted and blue roan skins for the horse and pug and Border collie skins for the dog. This mod is still growing and you need to be on the lookout for more interesting abilities on the coming versions.

The mods under this category usually allow you to add or introduce new features in the game. Some of these modes are:

NPC Map Locations

This mod will allow you to see each NPC on your map. This is actually a cool mod because it helps you find someone easily. Most importantly, you can also be able to limit this ability. You can set the map to update only once a day. You can also set it to exclude some people or just to show only the people who are currently in the same place as you.

Just as the name suggests, this mod helps in reducing the rate at which your fence breaks down or decays. Playing with this mod will make your fence to be less likely to break down thus making them last longer.

This is also one of the best stardew mods. When you install this mod, it will add a customizable file to the game which will always allow you to set specific shopkeepers to have specific items in their shops for sale. With this mod, you can also be able to set some items to become available only after certain points in the game.

Below are some of the mods you can install in your game under this category.

More music

This simply adds some music to your game while playing. Having this mod will allow you to add a few more songs in your game for your daily farming activities. The songs added often have cool soundtracks which make the game even more entertaining.

In-Game Cheat Menu

I think this might be the coolest stardew valley mod. This mod allows you to do a lot of cool things when you add it to the game. With the in-game cheat menu, you can adjust your skill levels, teleport anywhere; increase your movement speed among other things.

Weather controller mod

Just from the name, you can tell what this mod is all about. This is a mod that makes you feel like a god since it can allow you to control the weather. It gives you the power to change the weather to whatever weather you like in the middle of the game.

Stardew Valley is a fascinating role playing games for pc game and most people would probably fall in love with this game even if it is their first time. But when you start playing using the Stardew Valley Mods, you will take your game to another level of fun and enjoyment. Do you see your friends often stuck to their PCs while playing this game? Do they seem to like it and enjoying every bit of it? Well, look closely, they just might be playing with the Stardew Valley Nexus Mods. To find these and many other mods, check them up on stardew valley nexus mods page as said earlier. Try using these mods today and join the stardew community’s world of fun and entertainment. If you like this Stadew Valley Wiki Guide then don’t forget to share on social media.